Posted on 11/13/2008 2:13:16 AM PST by Man50D
The death of the Republican Party has an exact date: October 3, 2008. The day John McCain lost his bid for President also has an exact date: October 1, 2008. These dates are when the coroner officially declared death; the coma started much earlier: March 27, 2002.
October 3, 2008 is, of course, when the $trillion bailout was passed by the House and signed into law by President Bush. October 1 was when John McCain voted for the bailout in the Senate, and went on to urge House Republicans to vote in favor of it. March 27, 2002 was when President Bush signed McCain-Feingold into law. (Ironically, Feingold voted against the bailout, making him more Republican than McCain.)
The bailout is often quoted as costing $700 B. When all bailouts are added up (Fannie and Freddie, FHA, JP Morgan, Bear-Stearns, etc.), the cost is more like $1.8 trillion.
Concerning the bailout vote, I don't think there could have been any other single act by which John McCain could have so thoroughly demonstrated that he's been lying to us the whole time. He claimed to be a reformer, but this was about the most inside-the-beltway, anti-voter initiative in my memory. He claimed to be against earmarks, but this bill had about $150 billion of non-related "sweeteners" attached. He claimed to be a fiscal conservative, but this bill has the US government buying $700B worth of "troubled assets" from the private sector, all under the direction of one man: the Treasury Secretary. (Almost forgot: there is some "Congressional oversight", in case you were nervous.)
Republicans had branded themselves as the Party of low taxes, responsible spending and limited government. Virtually everything President Bush has done since his tax cuts in 2001 has been the exact opposite.
* Prescription coverage for Medicare and Medicaid, the largest expansion of entitlements since LBJ. * No Child Left Behind, sponsored by Ted Kennedy and leading to even more Federal intrusion into education and doubling federal spending on education. * Increased steel and lumber tariffs. * Ending the Freedom to Farm effort and expanded ethanol subsidies. * Increases in the minimum wage, the first in 10 years. * Increasing spending from about 18.4% of GDP to 20% and more, and turning surpluses into deficits. * Campaign Finance Reform. * And almost forgot, our President had the Justice Dept. file an amicus brief to weaken the 2nd Amendment in the Heller case.
And now this, a cumulative bailout of $1.8 trillion. Do you know how much $1.8 trillion is? It's what the entire Federal budget was in 2000. And Bush signed onto that much in just the last two weeks, on top of the $3 trillion regular budget. At this point, I don't care if we double the subsidies to mohair farmers or buy a bridge to nowhere. Bail out California, too -- just $7B, hardly a blip on the radar.
How long can you go on speechifying about the free market or limited government when this is your track record?
(If social issues, especially pro-life, are what drives your vote, explain why Roe v Wade has only been strengthened since 1973, all by a court with 7 of the 9 Justices, and every Chief Justice since 1953, appointed by Republicans. Name any other things the Republicans actually delivered for you when they had the Presidency, the Senate and the House, together. I'm waiting ...)
There is one thing John McCain does not lie about: he is always ready to reach across the aisle. McCain-Feingold (Campaign Finance Reform). McCain-Lieberman (Global Warming). McCain-Kennedy (Comprehensive Immigration Reform). And now McCain-Frank (Comprehensive Screw-the-Taxpayers-and-Kill-the-Free-Market Reform).
McCain's first instinct is to blame greedy corporations for any problem. The trouble with politics, in his mind, is the influence of corporate lobbyists, not the fact that in a nation of 300 million, 535 of them control a $3 trillion annual budget and regulate a $15 trillion economy. In his mind, temperatures are "high" (by one degree?) because corporations are producing too much, not because the sun is more active than usual. In his mind, the only trouble with illegal immigration is that businesses don't pay the immigrants enough. In his mind, we got into a financial fix because of greedy lenders, not because of a host of federal rules that incentivize irresponsible lending and criminalize responsible lending.
We already have a political party for those who adhere to such sentiments -- the Democratic Party. Well I guess we now have two such parties.
When the voters are given the choice between a Democrat and a Democrat in Republican clothing, they will vote for the Democrat. Really difficult to comprehend, I guess, since half the Republicans don't seem to understand it.
Democrats are painting our current financial mess as a "failure of the free market." Worse, no Republican is answering the charge. In fact, our last presidential nominee said, "you're right."
My friends, government takes up almost 40% of our economy. Federal regulations took up 2,620 pages in 1936, the middle of the New Deal and after much of the depression-era banking regulation. In 2004 those regulations took up 78,851 pages. Does that sound like a "free market" to you? If there was any regulation loop-hole existing in those 78,851 pages, it was put there on purpose by a legislator to help some cronies (and political contributors) get rich.
But when was the last time you heard anything blamed on "greedy legislators"? Did you ever think that corporations that give money to legislators are not bribing them, but simply paying them protection money?
If you are detecting some anger on my part, it is because I was given the choice, in its purest form, between Stupid and Evil last week. And Stupid is so stupid he doesn't even recognize Evil when they wake up in bed together and his hind end is sore.
What about the pre-bailout $2 TRILLION in loans, the recipients of which remain undisclosed?
Sound familiar ?
I still have yet to understand all those “principled” Senators who voted against the bailout because it was an expensive and stupid thing to do.
So what do they do? Wait until another $150 BILLION is tacked and vote it on through.
WHAT?
When McCain got the nomination, I knew where we were headed. Well, here we are. The Republican party died in the spring of 2008. The coroner has just pronounced the body dead. Now they’re going to put it on display sort of like Lenin, and we’ll get to view the body any time we like.
Even two months of CPR performed by Sarah Palin couldn’t save the corpse.
The only way the Republican party is revived, is if the rank and file activate and totally ignore the leadership, pushing through Conservative politicians who are not afraid to promote Conservative ideals.
As for the leadership, mass (figurative/political) suicide comes to mind.
The last Republican Congressman in Connecticut, Chris Shays, just bit the dust in this election. Although Shays says he's going to work to make the national Republican Party more inclusive. With a performance like he's given this hardly a receipt for success.
McCain's second chance, besides Palin, was to vote NO on the bail out and told the Republican's in the House to hold strong against it, the bail-out would've passed anyway, but Obama would had voted for it, as he did, and then McCain would have had the "red meat" flash point needed to re-energize his candidacy.
Without it he just became an un-Obama, which was significant for 56 million people, but not enough to carry the day.
How anyone could vote for him by actually thinking he would restore conservatism to the party or the country defies logic.
No one did. No, not one. Not even one.
representatives did that not senators
” McCain’s second chance, besides Palin, was to vote NO on the bail out and told the Republican’s in the House to hold strong against it, the bail-out would’ve passed anyway, but Obama would had voted for it, as he did, and then McCain would have had the “red meat” flash point needed to re-energize his candidacy.
Without it he just became an un-Obama, which was significant for 56 million people, but not enough to carry the day. “
BINGO !
* Prescription coverage for Medicare and Medicaid, the largest expansion of entitlements since LBJ. * No Child Left Behind, sponsored by Ted Kennedy and leading to even more Federal intrusion into education and doubling federal spending on education. * Increased steel and lumber tariffs. * Ending the Freedom to Farm effort and expanded ethanol subsidies.
mccain was against a lot of this stuff. The other ‘real’ conservatives (including Duncan Hunter) went along with Bush
I still have yet to understand all those “principled” Senators who voted against the bailout because it was an expensive and stupid thing to do.
The election is now over, their seats, both of them, are now safe for those up for reelection, and they now can do as they like. No one will remember the yes vote, only the principled no vote. My senator stands as evidence. Tim Johnson of brain aneurysm fame, who refused to debate his opponent because of speech issues, and won in a landslide, 70/30.
Please change the name of the source from WorldNetDaily.com to the AmericanThinker.com. I forgot to change the source name after deciding post this article instead of one from WND. Thanks. Sorry folks!
I think it died in 2000 thanks to Bush, Hastert and Delay. We had all branches of govt and they blew it.
PS, I almost forgot, this in the reddest of red states with a 2 out of three dem majority in the delegation of two senators and one congresswoman.
After McCain suspended his campaign, ran back to Washington, helped orchestrate the boondoggle bailout bill -— with the addition of some $150 Billion more in pork, Mc had a credibility problem.
How could the electorate believe him a few days later, back on the campaign trail, and his vehement “I will veto any pork bill...yada yada yada.”
He who hadn’t seen the inside of the Senate in months tried to pull off this ‘stunt’. [I called it a politicial stunt the day he suspended his campaign. And it turned out to be just that.] And it floppped. Yeh, big business got the bailout and taxpayers got the shaft.
McCain, who was slightly ahead in many states when he suspended his campaign, started falling behind after he voted for the bailout. He never recovered.
No one did. No, not one. Not even one.
I voted against Obama and for Sarah Palin.
As a fellow veteran, I respect John McCain's service and sacrifice to his country and I do think he would have made a good CiC (65% acitve duty military favored McCain as their CiC), however; as with you, I did not expect him to restore conservatism to the party.
Lesson to be learned from the 2008 election:
When given a choice between a real liberal and a half assed liberal democrats and the protected classes will vote for the real liberal every time.
The Neo-Con, Rockefeller Republican idea that you can win these voters with a little pandering and a little socialism never has worked.
As examples -
The more George Bush kissed the democrats butts, the more they abused and ridiculed him.
The more the republicans kiss up to liberal blacks the lower percentage of the black vote they get.
The more the republicans support handouts and socialist pandering the more elections they lose.
No one respects people (or a political party) willing to deal away their honor and professed beliefs for greed or momentary popularity.
Modern day republicans have to relearn this about every 4 years.
Bitch, moan, whine, complain!
Offer solutions or get the Hell out of the way so the REAL men (and women) can get things done!
How could the electorate believe him a few days later, back on the campaign trail, and his vehement “I will veto any pork bill...yada yada yada.”
his whole record of fighting pork...he had a perfect lifetime record....poof! gone in one day.
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